400 
GOLD DETRITUS OF THE TRACT SOUTH OF MIASK. 
seventy-eight English pounds 1 ! This may fairly be called the largest gold boulder 
which was ever washed away from a rock ! Large lumps of gold are, however, 
to be considered as exceptions in the Ural, and most of those which are of any 
magnitude have been found in this one small tract watered by the Taslikutur- 
gan rivulet, and collected at the adjacent works of Zarevo-Alexaudrofsk and 
Nikolayefsk. 
It forms, as before said, no part of our design to enter either into the mineralo- 
gical or statistical details connected with these gold mines 2 . Referring the reader 
to the mining map of this district, published by M. Rose, we simply beg to call 
attention to our rude drawing of a portion of the works a very little to the north 
of a monument erected to commemorate the visit of the Emperor Alexander in 
1824. 
65. 
In clearing away the auriferous detritus, here from ten to twelve feet in thick- 
ness, portions of the fundamental rock were laid open, the surfaces of which are 
so hollowed out into cavities, as to leave no doubt that, like the previous example 
(p. 487), they must have been subjected to very considerable erosion by water, 
though, for reasons which we shall presently assign, we believe that this effect 
was produced at an ancient period, and not when they were buried under the coarse 
1 The first mentioned of these specimens was found on the occasion of the visit of the Emperor 
Alexander to these mines, when the little monument represented in the above woodcut was erected. 
The large pepite was found at some depth in the alluvia on which one of the old buildings had been placed. 
See Major Oserkys’ description of this and other Russian " pepites ’ ; Kais. Russ. Min. Gesell. Jahr 
1844, p. 70, with figures of the two chief lumps of gold. 
* M. Rose states that upwards of 100 localities in the Miask district are auriferous. 
